If the Blackhawks' softball team could dethrone two-time defending champion and undefeated Grafton in Div. 2 softball — no small task — the town's diamond faithful would be euphoric. They did.

By Zack WardDaily News correspondent

WORCESTER — The Bellingham softball team came into its state championship game against Grafton tasked with holding up their end of a feat that involved their whole town and high school.Earlier on Saturday, the Bellingham baseball team had defeated Monument Mountain 11-6 to win the Div. 3 state championship. If the Blackhawks' softball team could dethrone two-time defending champion and undefeated Grafton in Div. 2 softball — no small task — the town's diamond faithful would be euphoric."We were just getting off the bus when we saw the tweet," said Blackhawk senior captain and catcher Rachel Kuhlman, whose team only watched the beginning of the baseball game before heading to Worcester State for its game at 4 p.m. "That was really cool and we were like, yeah, let's go get it, show everyone how awesome Bellingham is and how hard we've worked."Kuhlman and the Blackhawks showed just that, scoring three runs off a team that hadn't allowed one in nearly a month and getting out of an awkward jam in the bottom of the eighth to win 3-1 and claim the state title, which was the first for head coach Dennis Baker."We had a lot of people to do it for too," Kuhlman said. "We have a lot of awesome fans, a lot of awesome people in our lives that have brought us this far.""It's an amazing feeling," standout pitcher and senior captain Megan Cook said. "I finally did it, it's my last year and I went out with a bang."Cook was sixth in the state and first in the Tri-Valley league with an ERA of 0.49 during the regular season and had an incredible run through the postseason. On Saturday she pitched all eight innings, allowing one run with 10 strikeouts and two walks. It was critical for Cook to pitch well against Grafton's Kendal Roy, who had an ERA of 0.78 in the regular season.The senior rose to the challenge with key strikeouts to end fourth, fifth and eighth, to go with two hits and a run offensively as well."She was running out of gas, but she put everything she had into that last game because she knew it was her last game," Kuhlman said. "She didn't pitch like she was out of gas either. She tried so hard to just fight through the eight innings."After seven innings were completed it seemed like the pitcher's duel could go on for a while, but in the top of the eighth junior Chloe Woodward gave Bellingham the state championship.With one out senior captain Taylor MacGowen got things going when she was hit by a pitch. After Kuhlman popped up to third to make the second out, Cook singled to left to put runners on second and third for Woodward.Woodward then sat on a 1-1 pitch, waited for it to dip a bit in the strike zone and blasted it over Makayla Ritzie's head in left field. It was the only ball hit over an outfielder's head all game and drove home MacGowen and Cook to the delight of a screaming Bellingham cheering section."She had already thrown me a strike and I don't think it was a change-up, it was just a mid-speed pitch right over the plate," Woodward said. "Coach (Dennis) Baker has been coaching baseball for 40 years and he's never won a state title. So it was great … to get him a win."Grafton put a scare into the Blackhawks in the bottom half of the inning. A double steal and overthrow nearly got Grafton within a run. But the third base bag had come out, meaning a dead ball and timeout, so Grafton's Kate Cardoza came back out of the dugout and returned to third.Cook then struck out Amanda Voellings for the second out, and when the throw back from Kuhlman got past her, infielder Alice Felzmann threw home to get Cardoza and end the game."I knew as soon as she threw the ball it was a good throw," Baker said of Felzmann's play. "And we have one of the better catchers (Kuhlman) in the state. I knew Rachel no matter what just going to handle that ball and make that tag."Trailing 1-0, Bellingham finally got on the board in the fifth inning, ruining what had been a clean sheet for Grafton in the postseason.With one out, junior Julianne Kilduff ripped a groundball up the middle past a diving Shelbe Turpin at second base. Elaina Chambers then grounded out and advanced Kilduff to second for Felzmann, who gave the Blackhawks a huge relief when she hit a single to left field that scored Kilduff."I couldn't believe I made it home," Kilduff said. "I was surprised. I didn't know what I was doing, I was just sprinting my butt off.""It was real hard for me," Felzmann said. "I've been having big difficulties hitting lately, so getting that hit just really felt great."It was enough to get Bellingham to extra innings, where they made one final rally to cap a remarkable day for the team and the town."I'm really emotional about this … it made it so sweet having the boys play this morning. And the girls tend to feed off of them, which is great," said Baker, also the school's athletic director. "And they've always played the game before us. So whether it was the day before or the same day, they said we're not walking away unless we have two trophies."

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